Take a Deep Breath

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Diši duboko/ Take a Deep Breath
Image:Disi duboko.jpg Jelena Djokić and Ana Franić as Lana and Saša, a scene from the movie
Directed by	Dragan Marinković
Produced by	Danica Milojković
Written by	Hajdana Baletić
Starring	Mira Furlan Bogdan Diklić Ana Franić Jelena Đokić Nikola Đuričko
Music by	Vladan Marković
Release date(s)	November 9, 2004 (SRB)
Running time	80 min.
Country
Language	Serbian
IMDb profile

Take a Deep Breath (Serbian: Диши дубоко, Diši duboko) is a 2004 Serbian film, directed by Dragan Marinković and written by Hajdana Baletić. This drama is often referred to as the "first Serbian LGBT feature film", even though the writer herself stresses that it is more about the generation gap in the modern family.^[1] The premiere was held on November 8, 2004 in Belgrade's Sava Center.

1 Tagline
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Soundtrack
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Tagline

The key note quotes American comedian George Carlin: "... And always remember: life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away..."

[edit] Plot

Saša (Ana Franić), a law student from Belgrade, decides one day to leave the university and emigrate to Canada with her boyfriend Stefan (Branislav Tomašević).

After being informed about this during a family dinner, her parents can hardly hide their disappointment. Stefan and Saša, who tends to blame her parents for everything she dislikes in her country and in her life, leave the dinner demonstratively.

Immediately after, en route to Stefan's apartment, they get into a car accident. Luckily they both survive: Saša only with scratches and Stefan with minor head and leg injuries that require hospitalization. In the hospital Saša meets Stefan's sister Lana (Jelena Đokić), a charming photographer who lives in Paris. While Saša is being released from the hospital on the same day she wakes up, Stefan is being held for couple of weeks more.

While he recoveres there, his sister seems to forget the original intention of her arrival to Serbia, which was to look after Stefan until he felt better, and spends all her time with Saša. Saša, who is originally irritated by Lana, is being slowly seduced by her, and goes through the path of anger, denial, acceptance and outing in the timespan of only few days.

Her parents, busy with their own separation and divorce, don't notice their daughter's love life confusion right away - more precisely, they have to be told so. Both of them react very differently. Mother (Mira Furlan), who has just realized that life should not be wasted in compromises but should be lived to the fullest, is very happy that her daughter has finally found true love. On the other hand, Saša's father (Bogdan Diklić), a rather conservative judge who tries to keep his family together at all costs, becomes very unstable and angry after hearing the news, which for him represents the last drop.

While this movie supports the gay right to love and to be loved freely and openly, in the same time it condemns a homosexual and every other kind of pedophilia by showing how deep is the trauma that a sexual abuse at the young age left on Saša's father. Releasing all his suppressed anger, he has Lana followed and arrested for one night on a traffic violation account, which results in Lana's change of spirit - from joyful but a little superficial and inconsiderate girl she becomes a crushed pessimist, decided to escape the troublesome situation. She confronts Stefan and breaks up with Saša, telling her that "it was a nice dream" and that "she wishes for her to fall in love again", suggesting that she herself could not love again. She leaves for Paris, and things eventually work out for Stefan, who splits for Canada with a nurse from the hospital, and for Saša's mother, who moves to Vienna with her new husband and her little stepdaughter. Saša's father dies on, so to say, the consequences of his invented heart condition and Saša is left completely alone to stand still in a world where everybody else seems to be going places, even though in different directions.

A viewer is being left with a distinct feeling of "plots behind the plot", i.e. there are several stories from the life of the protagonists, which are implied but not told. Those are for example: the story about Stefan's and Lana's childhood and their relationship in general; the story about Saša's father's youth and marriage; the relationship between Saša's father and his assistant; and the most important - what has happened that night in prison and why has Lana decided to drop the fight so quickly. Although it may sound as a disadvantage of the scenario, it acctually complements it (except, maybe, the unclearance of Lana's mindchanging).